Every once in awhile I see something happening at a company that surprises me—in a good way—about its corporate approach to compliance and culture.
Most recently it was a comment from the audit committee chairman for a global foods company, describing the company’s practice of planting “false tips” within its organization to see whether those concerns will be reported and rise to the top. It was similar to another company that routinely drops complaints into its confidential hotline to verify the performance of its third-party provider in different parts of the world. After many years in the trenches of compliance and ethics, and as an observer of how organizations can sometimes lack political will to “walk the talk,” these developments are heartening.
